Field Post Office 172

[Ross Debenham]

Find attached copy of cover from the above mentioned FPO dated 19th March, 1941. I have also attached a scan of the details of the sender of the sender of the letter. According to the body of the letter he had travelled via Sierra Leone and South Africa on their way to the present location of the post office.  According to the address FPO 172 was attached to APO 725. My questions are as follows:
Where was APO 172 located on 19 March, 1941 although the letter was written at least a week earlier?
Also, what does R.C.M.C.I or 1 stand short for, as obviously R.A.O.C. obviously denotes Royal Army Ordnance Corp.?

[Nick Colley]

Hi, Ross, well, I can only re-iterate what Proud says (and add a couple of thoughts of my own).

Proud says APO 725 was the army postal address for Greece. FPO 172 he says was 'M.E., 5 L of C PU' at this time. However, I think it is pretty certain that 172 was never in Greece (or Crete), given the sense of what is written in Proud's book (pages 67-70). So, thinking out loud, the sense of the letter indicates the writer has been in transit – and maybe still was, given his address as merely an APO number. I surmise, therefore that he had reached Egypt, possibly (or perhaps probably?) en route to Greece, given the APO address, and that his letter was posted through a convenient FPO in Egypt (ie FPO 172). Come to think of it, the Egyptian stamps confirm use in Egypt. Precisely where in Egypt is a matter of conjecture, but given his shipborn-travel, the post office using the 172 datestamp may well have been adjacent to the Suez Canal.

Doesn't really help much, does it? Best I can offer with available resources, though. Hopefully another member can add something more substantial.

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

Ross / Nick

I refer you to my article "Numbered Army Post Office (APO) Addresses Used on British Forces Mail During WW2" on the use of APO numbers as temporary addresses for units or individuals or drafts of individuals proceeding overseas.  FPO datestamps were not usually allotted to these temporary addresses.

The cover in question has Egyptian stamps - therefore the FPO datestamp was allocated to an Egyptian based FPO and not to APO 725.

My records for APO 725 show the following:

APO 725 EFM telegraph service authorised [listed in POC 23 Apr 1941]
HQ 2nd Armd Div MEF
RASC 1892, A Sect GHQ, 2nd Echelon
1940: Greece
1940/41: 2 Regt RHA (Crete?) Middle East
Southampton 22 November 1940 to APO 725; redirected 5 April 1941 locally in Middle East; then returned as addressee was a POW [handwritten report to me]
Bournemouth 9 April 1941 to GHQ 2 Echelon APO 725, Destination D; Returned FPO 197 on 18 July 1941; reported as POW [handwritten report to me]

I rather suspect that the letters R.C.M.C.I. are draft letters and not some form of unit abbreviation.

RAOC = Royal Army Ordnance Corp[u]s[/u].

Mike

[Ross Debenham]

Thanks gentlemen, the quest continues.
Ross